This time, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to the epistle of 1 John, the epistle of 1 John, reading from chapter 1. We'll begin at verse 5 and we'll read through chapter 2, verse 2. This is the very word of God. John writes, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. May God bless his word to us. This is John's eyewitness account of what he has seen and heard and what his hands have touched. John is writing with a particular purpose. Unlike the Apostle Paul, who often writes to a particular church addressing their particular issues or needs, John is writing broadly about issues he wants to address in the Christian church. That's why we often call this one of the Catholic epistles. It's not written to a particular church, but to the church universal. And in this passage that we're considering, John has a particular message he wants to bring out. I think John Calvin helpfully says that the epistle of 1 John can often be thought of as doctrine mixed with exhortation. talking about the truths of God and the truths of God that instruct believers to live in a certain way. And that's really what we have here. It's a simple message that John brings. And that message is that God is light. And the instruction for believers is because God is light, we are to walk in the light. And what he wants to communicate to his hearers is, how are we to be those who walk in the light. And I think he does this in three ways, by telling believers to focus on Christ's holiness, to face their own sin, and to find their hope in Christ. That really is the message that John has for the people. So let's consider that. What does he mean that we have to focus on Christ's holiness? John is highlighting the fact that he is an eyewitness. He has seen that god is light and if we think about what the apostle what the apostle john has written especially in his gospels we hear echoes of this metaphor of light describing god we need look no further in the gospel of john and john 1 verse 9 the true light was coming into the world describing jesus christ and if you go through the gospel of john you see over and over again that this metaphor of light is applied to jesus christ we don't have time to go through all the places it's applied to Christ. It's applied in chapter 1 and chapter 3 and chapter 8 and chapter 9, chapter 11, chapter 12. John very clearly connects Jesus with the light. So I think particularly here we can see this focus on this message that God is light relates to Jesus Christ himself, who is the light come into the world. John is focusing on his apostleship, the fact that he is an eyewitness. This is the message that he has heard. And as such, he's conveying to the people. I'm a witness of this. Jesus said, no one has ever seen the Father. But John had seen Jesus and could testify that he was the light. But that's not the only part of John's message. John goes on to say, and in him there is no darkness at all. I don't know if you've given that much thought, but John Calvin says, we might be able to talk about it this way, God is light in such a way that he admits no darkness. Now, we understand what admission is. Kids, if you've gone to a movie or gone to a baseball game, you need to buy a ticket. And you need to show that ticket to someone at the gate. And if you do that, they will admit you. They will let you in. And John Calvin says, God is light in such a way that he admits no darkness. God does not let any darkness in. There is no admission for the darkness. and John wants to communicate this to his readers that not only is God light it means he's light in such a way that no darkness comes in and think of the power of that statement think about someone who knows you about as well as anyone knows you maybe a long time friend or a sibling or a spouse if they looked at your life how would they describe it maybe it makes you a little nervous thinking about what they might say the people that know you best the apostle john probably knew jesus better than any human being did he was with jesus in all his earthly ministry he was with jesus in the relative good times and in the bad he was with jesus at his death he saw jesus resurrection he even was the apostle given the revelation of jesus return he understands jesus person and work better than anyone else and his testimony is that he was light and in him there was no darkness that's the message he wants to bring to his readers and he wants that message to motivate a response look what john says in first john 2 verse 1 my dear children i write this to you so that you will not sin this is to be the motivation when we focus on the holiness of god it's to motivate a response it's to motivate holiness on our part the apostle peter says this in first peter 1 15 to 16 but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for i am holy focusing on god's holiness reminds us that we are to be holy we are to walk in the light i don't know about you but when i look at my life in light of God's holiness, something immediately jumps out. That when he says walk in the light, I recognize that I walk in the darkness. When he sees that your light is to be like his, that you are to be holy as he is holy, we immediately recognize that we are not holy people. We do not live a life of holiness before our God. And John wants his listeners to focus not only on God's holiness, but also to face the reality of their own sin. He wants that sin to be confronted. And he reminds his listeners that if we say that we're without sin, we're lying to ourselves. And we see this all over the world in the way people talk about sinful behavior. I'm born that way. I can't help myself. It's a disease. There's all kinds of lies that people tell about sin. It's all a type of self-deception. Denying the sin that exists. Saying that where we find sin, it's not really sin. I don't know if anyone had an opportunity to see the article in the USA Today that Mike Horton was quoted in about where has sin gone? Do people still preach on sin? What's happened to it? Well, it's not a big mystery what's happened to it. John says it right here. We deceive ourselves into thinking we have no sin. We lie to ourselves. Think back to what Jesus said in Matthew 7. At the end of times, there will be people that come to me and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things in your name? And he will say, depart from me. I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness. We might be able to summarize that another way. Haven't we walked in the light? And Jesus says, depart from me. You walk in darkness. It's the first danger of not being willing to confront our own sin. It's that we deny sin. We lie to ourselves. And if that's not bad enough, we also make God a liar. Because if we say that we're without sin, we go directly against what he said in his word over and over again about the sin that entangles all of human life. Go back to Genesis 6 and Genesis 8. We're reminded that from childhood, The only inclinations of our heart are only evil all the time. Or think about what Paul says in Romans 3, quoting the Psalms. No one is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And of course, Paul's famous statement summarizing this in Romans 3.23, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The canons of Dort sum up the teaching of Scripture on our sin. All people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin. This is the teaching of Scripture. This is what God says. This is who God says we are. And to deny this is to call him a liar. And what John is trying to tell the people that are listening to this letter, the people that are reading this letter to us today is that the reality of sin must be confronted because forgiveness of sins is only found with repentance, with confession. It's been said that there is no remission of sins without repentance. Confession is an important part And it's a condition, John puts, if we confess our sins. So he's saying, don't lie to yourself and tell yourself you are not walking in the darkness. Don't call God a liar when he says that you walk in darkness. You have to confront that sin and confess that sin. Now, so far, it's kind of a bleak picture. John says we're supposed to walk in the light, but we don't walk in the light. He says we're to walk in the light as he is in the light, and we certainly don't do that. We're faced with the reality of our sin, and we're asking the question, in the face of a holy God, in light of my sin, where is my hope? And that's the final part of John's message to his people. We have to find our hope in Jesus Christ. He is the source of our hope. He is where we find our hope. Look with me in 1 John 1, verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from all sin. That's the hope in light of the fact that we walk in darkness. Because sometimes we can look at our lives and say, they're so full of sin, they're so full of failure. It's such a mess. How can it possibly be cleaned up? Now, I remember when I was younger, sometimes I would let my room get pretty messy, and mom or dad would walk me in there and say, you've got to clean up your room, and until you clean it up, you can't go out and play. And I would look around, and there would be toys all over the floor, there would be clothes piled up, the bed wasn't made, and I would think to myself, I'm never going to get this all done. I'll be in here forever. And that's sometimes how we can feel when we look at our lives, That there's just so much sin, there's so much depravity, so much has welled up. How would we ever be made right with God? How would we ever be able to be those who walk in the light as He is in the light? And He tells us right here, if we confess our sins, Jesus Christ is faithful to purify us from all sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's how we get admitted. When I was a kid, sometimes I wanted to get out and play, so instead of really cleaning the room, you would just kind of push everything under the bed, pile up all the clothes and shove it in the closet, wedge the door shut, pull the cover over the bed and just kind of rumple down the rough spots and say, okay, it's all clean, I'm ready to go. Well, what happens? Your parents walk in and they sniff that out pretty quickly. They say, no, it's not clean. You've only done half the job. Jesus is not a savior like that. He doesn't do half the job. There are those in the world who teach, you know, Jesus has cleansed the past sin, and now it's your job to go forward. It's your job to keep yourself right with God from here on out. And that's not the message John brings. Not only is Christ our hope of being cleansed of our past sins, he's also our hope for the future. Because look in 1 John 2 again. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. That's what he wants us to do. He wants to motivate a life of holiness. But what does he say right after that? But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. It's not just the past that Jesus serves to give us hope for. It's also the future. It's why we can live a life of gratitude, serving God in light of the gospel promises, without the fear of wrath. That's what makes Easter so important. We have a risen Savior who we serve, who even now is seated in heaven, defending us before the Father, showing His wounds, reminding the Father of His atoning sacrifice, advocating for us, so that we need not fear the condemnation that comes with unrepentant sinners. Christ is our advocate before the Father. He's our hope not just for the past. He's our hope for the future. And John says a final amazing thing. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world. It's not just us that Christ is the hope for. Christ is the hope for the whole world. Now what does John mean by this? Does he mean that Jesus died for everyone so that everyone is now saved? Well, clearly this would contradict everything that John has said in his gospel, the message that he has told about Jesus Christ. That's not what he's saying. But he's saying just as Jesus is our hope, he's our hope for the future. He needs to be the hope of the whole world. Remember that this letter is not written to a particular congregation. It's not written to address a particular issue in a particular church. It's written to the church universal. it's written to Christians everywhere at the time of the writing would have been Jews and Gentiles being reminded that he's not just our hope he's the hope of the whole world and even though we know that his death did not pay for the whole world we know that Christ alone can be the hope of a dark and dying world and it's that message that has to go out and when it goes out right you see the power of that think about Peter's sermon in Acts when he preaches the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice, what does it say about that? Acts 2, 37-39. When the people heard this, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? What shall we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and your children and for all who are far off for all whom the Lord our God will call. This is why Jesus Christ is the hope of the whole world because there's no other name under which people might be saved. And we see all over in our world the darkness and death that sin brings. And that question rings out in our culture. What shall we do? And there's all kinds of answers. There are all kinds of people willing to jump up and say, this is what you shall do. And give the wrong answer. John is saying Christ is the only hope for those who are out there. He's the only hope for the whole world. He's the only hope for those who live in darkness. And we need to be a people who walk in the light. Not just so that we give glory to God for the salvation he's provided for us, but so we reflect that light in a dark and dying world. So that not only God might be glorified, but our neighbors might be built up. And we need to be reminded of this hope in Jesus Christ, because if we live our lives constantly afraid, we're missing the promise of the gospel. The promise that we think about this morning with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That wonderful promise that he's the first fruits of the harvest of us all. And we should have that same desire for our neighbor that we see in scripture. To go out and to call the lost while there's time. Because the time is short. The darkness is just about over. And the true light is about to come. We don't want to see our world found in the darkness. We want to walk in the light, focusing on Christ's holiness, facing our sin, finding our hope in him, so that we may glorify the Father and we may reflect that light to a dying world. Let's close in prayer. Our Father in heaven, thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to reveal your Son, Jesus Christ, and your Holy Word. Thank you for his sacrifice that purifies us from sin, cleanses us from unrighteousness, and turns away your wrath. Thank you for the power of his indestructible life that even now exists at your right hand interceding for us. May we live to reflect his light to a dying world until the day he returns to make all things new. It is in his precious name we pray. Amen.